Louvain mathematicians shared an anecdote. It recounted how Margaret of Austria, regent of the Low Countries (1507–1530) for her
nephew Charles v, had consulted an astrologer around the time of
the 1524 debates.1 This man, known as Franciscus Monachus, provided her with successful predictions of the captivity of François 1 at
Pavia (1525) and of the death of René de Châlon (1544):

Since Mars was in the fourth and lowest house in the geniture of
François, and the tail of the dragon in the mid-heaven, Franciscus
Monachus of a Franciscan convent near Mechlin not only predicted his
captivity to Margaret of Austria, the aunt of your father, but even the
year, month, day, and hour of that event. The same Franciscus predicted
that the 26th year would be fatal for René de Châlon, prince of Orange.
This in fact happened on St.-Desiderius’ day in the year 1544.2

Litde firm evidence exists about the elusive Franciscus Monachus (c. 1490–1565). He was a Franciscan from Mechlin who studied at
Louvain, and designed the oldest known globe from the Low Countries.3 No extant copy of this terrestrial globe has been discovered,
but some idea of its origins and content can be derived from the

1 So far, I have encountered this story in Joannes Stadius’ Ephemerides (first edition
in 1556). Sixtus ab Hemminga, another Louvain student of astrology, also mentioned
Franciscus Monachus as an important proponent of astrology. See Sixtus ab Hem-
minga, Astrolopae refutatae liber, p. 142.

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